Description

Beach House - Bloom

“Bloom” is the fourth full-length album by Beach House. Like their previous releases (self titled – 2006, Devotion – 2008, Teen Dream – 2010), it further develops their distinctive sound yet stands apart as a new piece of work.

The landscape of Bloom was largely designed on the road, between the countless sound checks and myriad experiences during two years of touring. Throughout this period, melodies, chords, rhythms, words, and textures surfaced in moments of their own choosing. These spontaneous ideas were later gathered and developed in Baltimore, where the band lives and works.

Bloom was then recorded in late 2011 over a period of seven weeks at Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillo, TX and mixed for another two at Electric Lady in NYC. The band co-produced the record with Chris Coady.

Bloom is meant to be experienced as an ALBUM. A singular, unified vision of the world. “Many songs were omitted or dropped because they lacked a place within our vision for this album,” notes Scally. Though not stripped down, the many layers of Bloom are uncomplicated and meticulously constructed to ensure that there is no waste. Each chord and melody performs its role to form a whole. The songs have depth and reveal themselves in new ways through repeated listening. As a complete work, Bloom transcends the banality of simple emotions and arrives at a realm of honesty and complexity. It soberly reveals how frightening and temporary, yet beautiful, our existence is. It creates an honest reflection of death, as it must to relate to life. To this Legrand adds, “Bloom is a journey. For me, it is about the irreplaceable power of imagination as it relates to the intense experience of living. A bloom is only temporary…a fleeting vision of life in all of its intensity and colour, beautiful even if only for a moment.”

Beach House is Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand. They live in Baltimore, Maryland.

Reviews

Beach House's decision to call this record Bloom is almost too perfect. Over the course of four albums that's exactly what this band has done. Two people from Baltimore started by making incense-smelling, curtains-drawn bedroom pop. Now, eight years later, they make luminous, sky-sized songs that conjure some alternate universe where Cocteau Twins have headlined every stadium on Atlantis. "Bloom" is also what these 10 songs do, each one starting with the sizzle of a lit fuse and at some fine moment exploding like a firework in slow motion. The word captures the music's slow sonority: the round, gleaming edges of Alex Scally's arpeggios and how, in Victoria Legrand's unhurried mouth, all words seem to have a few extra vowels.

And here we thought they'd already bloomed. Two years ago, Beach House put out their first great record, Teen Dream. Brimming with lush sadness and lyrics that painstakingly documented the evaporation of a love ("It can't be gone," Legrand gasped on "10 Mile Stereo", "We're still right here"). Teen Dream was a break-up album, a clearer and more assured exploration of the exquisite, minor-key feelings the band had been mining since their self-titled debut. It felt like such a complete realization of the band's potential that it had to make you wonder-- a little worried, even-- where could they possibly go from here?

Bloom suggests that this is the wrong question. "I hate it when bands change between records," Scally admitted recently. "[T]hat's not the way we work." And he's right: Beach House haven't changed, or at least not much. Bloom doesn't stray far from the structure or the emotional tenor of its predecessor. It finds the band making small, sharp adjustments to its craft, but these shifts are so subtle it takes a few listens for them to sink in. The songwriting is tighter, yet the atmosphere feels more diffuse; the lyrics are more straightforward, yet they're somehow suggestive of larger things. By just about every measure, Bloom's wingspan is fuller than anything Beach House have done before.
Much of the power of Beach House's music lies in the way it forgoes simple, this-means-this storytelling in favor of communicating indescribable emotions. Still, Bloom has a definite thematic fascination with idle youth and the bittersweet residue that remains once it's gone. "Troublemaker" looms with the threat of bad romance, and the brazen, epic "Wild"-- one of their best songs yet-- conjures teenage feelings of boredom, broken homes ("Our father won't come home, 'cause he is seeing double"), and the inordinate amounts of faith placed in the things that take someone out of those particular hells ("That's when your car pulls up, its hood is black and gleaming"). Legrand's ethereal contralto huffs so much life into her lines that even lyrics that look plain on the page take flight. Throughout, Legrand and Scally sound in perfect sync: his nimble riffs punctuate her long, drawn-out notes to add depth and layered rhythm to the tracks.

Toward the end comes a mid-tempo, quietly spectacular song called "Wishes", on which Legrand sings about "the moment when a memory aches." It might be tempting to call that feeling nostalgia. But the sort of nostalgia Bloom employs feels so distant from the definition that word has taken on lately when we talk about music. What they do feels not just wonderfully self-contained but improbably intimate: It's a huge testament to Legrand and Scally that, although they're one of the most popular bands in the indiesphere at the moment, their music still has the hushed air of an overheard secret.

Filmmakers call the part of the day right before the sun goes down "the magic hour." It's that brief moment when the waning daylight causes everything to take on a holy, hazy glow. It took Terrence Malick about a year to shoot his 1978 movie Days of Heaven because he insisted on filming only during this time of day, but the results perfectly capture and distend that dizzy, overripe feeling of right before something very good ends. Bloom does that, too. "What comes after this momentary bliss?" Legrand wonders on "Myth". It's a question Beach House don't seem interested in answering any time soon. Because that's become their signature magic trick: stopping time right before the sun disappears over the horizon, tricking you into believing a feeling can last forever.
Lindsay Zoladz, Pitchfork 9.1

Tracklisting

12" Vinyl Album (BELLAV334)

Beach House - Myth

Beach House - Wild

Beach House - Lazuli

Beach House - Other People

Beach House - The Hours

Beach House - Troublemaker

Beach House - New Year

Beach House - Wishes

Beach House - On The Sea

Beach House - Irene

CD Album (BELLACD334)

Beach House - Myth

Beach House - Wild

Beach House - Lazuli

Beach House - Other People

Beach House - The Hours

Beach House - Troublemaker

Beach House - New Year

Beach House - Wishes

Beach House - On The Sea

Beach House - Irene

Download Album (5414939422874)

Beach House - Myth

Beach House - Wild

Beach House - Lazuli

Beach House - Other People

Beach House - The Hours

Beach House - Troublemaker

Beach House - New Year

Beach House - Wishes

Beach House - On The Sea

Beach House - Irene

Downloads

mp3 downloads

Track Number

Track Name

Track Length

Price

Buy

1

Myth

4m 18s

£0.99

2

Wild

4m 58s

£0.99

3

Lazuli

5m 1s

£0.99

4

Other People

4m 24s

£0.99

5

The Hours

4m 7s

£0.99

6

Troublemaker

4m 55s

£0.99

7

New Year

5m 22s

£0.99

8

Wishes

4m 39s

£0.99

9

On The Sea

5m 32s

£0.99

10

Irene

16m 57s

N/A

N/A

Entire MP3 Download Album (10 tracks)

£7.99

MP3 format technical details

These mp3 tracks have been encoded with LAME providing you with a very rich listening experience. No DRM or copy protection is built in to the mp3s.

Unfortunately at this time we can't offer all the Beach House - Bloom tracks as individual wavs, as some of these tracks exceed the shops maximum (9mins) download length.

These longer wav tracks are available in the full album download.

wav downloads

Track Number

Track Name

Track Length

Price

Buy

1

Myth

4m 18s

£0.99

2

Wild

4m 58s

£0.99

3

Lazuli

5m 1s

£0.99

4

Other People

4m 24s

£0.99

5

The Hours

4m 7s

£0.99

6

Troublemaker

4m 55s

£0.99

7

New Year

5m 22s

£0.99

8

Wishes

4m 39s

£0.99

9

On The Sea

5m 32s

£0.99

10

Irene

16m 57s

N/A

N/A

Entire WAV Download Album (10 tracks)

£7.99

Unfortunately at this time we can't offer all the Beach House - Bloom tracks as individual wavs, as some of these tracks exceed the shops maximum (9mins) download length.